Allah Shows Affection to Us Through Trials

Abu Ghassan noticed a change in the feelings of his two sons towards him. Ghassan and Rami now came every morning to their father's room, extending their hands and saying, "Allowance, please, Dad" in a routine, monotonous manner. He would give them the allowance, they would hastily thank him, and then leave the house.

Abu Ghassan wanted to remind his sons that his relationship with them was not just about the allowance. So, when they came this time and extended their hands to receive the allowance, their father said to them in a tone filled with genuine love, "I love you, my sons." Abu Ghassan wished that his eyes would meet his sons' eyes as he said these words, so he could see joy and pride in them for what he had said to them. He wanted any indication that his sons loved him for himself, not for the allowance he gave them. However, the sons' response was disappointing. They replied absentmindedly, "We do too," meaning they loved him too, but they remained with their hands and eyes fixed on their father's pocket, where the allowance was.

The father was shocked, and his smile turned into a frown. He took his hand out of his pocket without the wallet. The boys noticed what happened and realized their lack of response to their father's kind words. They withdrew their hands and lowered them, trying to rectify the situation. Rami said, "Dad, I'm sorry... Of course, I love you. You are my father who raised me and spent on me, and I cannot do without you."

Rami said these words, but his mind was on the allowance, expecting his father to put his hand in his pocket and give him the allowance. However, the father did not do so and remained silent.

Rami said, "Dad, please, I need the allowance. I promise to be more polite, but don't deprive me of the allowance." The father did not respond, so Rami got upset and left the room angrily.

As for Ghassan, the situation shook him to the core! He truly loved his father, but his heart had been distracted from this love by his attachment to the allowance in recent times. The father's withered, frowning face awakened Ghassan's feelings. He realized how negligent he had been towards his father recently. He realized that he had been selfish, not thinking much about his father's feelings and not striving to bring joy to his heart. Ghassan's eyes welled up with hot tears, and he said in a trembling voice, "I'm sorry, my beloved father... I have been very neglectful of you! Please forgive me... The whole world is not worth your smile." He said these words while turning his teary eyes towards his father's face, searching for any sign of his frown easing. However, the father remained frowning and silent and left his room and sat on the sofa without speaking.

Ghassan followed him and moved around his father like a cat, sometimes kissing his hands, sometimes kissing his head, and sometimes holding his father's hand in his, with tears streaming down his cheeks, saying, "Forgive me, please, Dad... I love you. You know I love you."

The father was torn by conflicting feelings. He did not like seeing his son so distressed, but he was still shocked by his sons' initial indifference, and he wanted more assurance of Ghassan's sincerity in his love. The father withdrew and returned to his room in silence, closing the door behind him.

Ghassan felt lost, so he followed him and said from behind the door, calling out, "Dad, please... I cannot bear life without your approval. I cannot live seeing you angry and sad. I made a mistake, Dad, but I love you. I love you, Dad. Please forgive me. Please smile at me. Please include me in your heart." Ghassan's crying voice rose like a frightened child left by his mother in the desert.

At that moment, the barrier of indifference in the father's heart broke before Ghassan's tears. He opened the door and lifted his son, who was kneeling, and embraced him to his chest, wiping his tears and kissing his head. Ghassan's crying continued, but now it was a cry of joy and longing that was satisfied.

The father reached into his pocket to take out Ghassan's allowance, but Ghassan returned the wallet to his father's pocket and said to him while clinging to his chest, "Let's forget about the allowance now. I want you, my beloved father. As long as you are pleased with me, the whole world is insignificant."

And to Allah belongs the highest example. Allah the Almighty may know from His servants dryness in their love for Him and attachment to the worldly blessings He grants them. He the Almighty woos His servants and loves that they reciprocate His love. So, if He sees from them indifference and heedlessness, He may cut off a blessing from them to shake their being and awaken them from their heedlessness, so that they may realize the truth that the blessing has veiled them from the Blesser.

As for the one with poor feelings like "Rami," he does not understand these dimensions. He is still in his heedlessness, where the "allowance" has dominated his thinking. May Allah forgive him and strive in acts of obedience to restore the "allowance."

His misfortune is not in Allah's rebuke of him, but his misfortune is the cutting off of the "allowance"! Stupidity in thinking, shallowness in vision, poverty in feelings, and selfishness in dealing! He only thinks about what he takes and does not see it as his duty to give.

As for the one with a refined sense and a living heart like "Ghassan," the cutting off of the "allowance" removes the veil from his eyes to see the real calamity, which is his shortcoming towards Allah the Almighty and his heedlessness of Him. All that occupies his being is how to please Allah the Almighty and prove to Him that he reciprocates His love. As for the return of the "allowance," it becomes a secondary matter. For he can live - albeit with difficulty - without the allowance, but he cannot bear a moment of the loss he would suffer if he lost Allah's companionship or felt that Allah did not love him.

In the end, the "allowance" may return to both: "We provide for these and those from the provision of your Lord. And the provision of your Lord is not restricted." However, the first one, the poor in feeling, will come out of the trial as he entered it, having gained nothing. As long as he sees the return of the "allowance" as the ultimate goal and the pinnacle of ambitions. As for the second, the trial was the greatest blessing for him, as it freed his soul from the shackles of heedlessness to revolve in the orbit of the love of Allah the Almighty. "Are they equal in example?"

Look at the trial positively, not as a pure punishment, but as a form of Allah's wooing, who saw from us heedlessness of Him and dryness in our affection towards Him. So, He tested us to review ourselves, to feel shame, to love, and to woo. To Allah, the Lord of the worlds.